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Durham coomes together in Unity after Cross Burnings

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#1 ·
DURHAM -- Hundreds of Durham residents clasped hands Sunday to form a human chain of black, brown and white links, united against the perpetrators and mind-sets that led to the burning of three crosses in the city last month.
Six hundred to 800 people crowded into the Durham Armory for a rally aimed at bringing the community together in solidarity and condemnation of the racial hatred for which flaming crosses have historically stood.

On May 25, the first of three 7-foot-tall burning crosses was reported at 9:19 p.m. outside St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Hillandale Road. About 35 minutes later, police responded to a second flaming cross along South Roxboro Street, near Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway. A third cross burning was reported about 10:20 p.m. near Dillard and Holloway streets.

Law enforcement officers have yet to charge anyone in the incidents.

Even as the clock struck 4 Sunday afternoon -- the time the rally was to start -- a long line of supporters baked in the sun on the sidewalk in front of the downtown armory. Crowds filled the more than 300 seats in the first level, stood along the walls and packed into the balcony.

More than half of Sunday's crowd at the armory was white, with blacks numbering 35 percent to 40 percent. The message from more than a dozen speakers was reconciliation, healing, action and retribution.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said cross burnings "should not and will not be tolerated in Durham or anywhere else in the state.

"As a white man, I cannot begin to understand the personal feelings" that come from racial intimidation, he said. "I can [understand] and do know right and wrong."

Through loud applause, he called the cross burnings an act of domestic terrorism.

Government and law enforcement agencies have put together a $22,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of those involved. Cooper said those agencies are engaged in a "forceful and thorough effort to find the perpetrators."

A toll-free tip line should soon be available, he said.

Community activist Richele James said she has been asked why someone would burn the crosses in Durham.

Her answer: Why does that matter?

"What does matter is how we respond to this action. [We should] embrace one another in the spirit of unity and reconciliation," James said. "We need to pray for the individuals that burned the crosses ... and pray that it will not take another heinous crime to get us together."

Yvonne Pena, director of the city's Department of Human Relations, which organized the rally, asked the crowd to see the cross burnings as a blatant expression of the more insidious types of racism the Durham residents face.

"We need to be vigilant to the big and small instances of prejudice," Pena said. "Hate is like a weed that one should not ever dismiss. This weed usually approaches a garden one flower at a time."

Pena explained the Duke-blue ribbons that organizers pinned on everyone from toddlers with sippy cups to the elderly leaning on canes.

"I had only $40, and this beautiful royal blue ribbon was on sale," she said. "But today we have given it a ... strong, profound meaning: Durham unity."

The crowd was loudly supportive of the general calls for stamping out prejudice, but the applause became weak for some speakers who called on the community to take action to reduce black suspensions and dropout rates that they say push youths into gangs. Some speakers asked the crowd to spend some time reflecting on their personal biases.

Pausing to find the words, Sandy Leak said she went to the rally with her husband and son because what happened was so shocking that "we felt a need to show in some way that there was a different Durham." She said the large crowd vindicated the city that cherishes diversity.

Valerie Newton and her twin daughters, Mashawnda and Lashawnda, took a charter bus that traveled to four of the city's public housing complexes to pick up people who otherwise would have had no ride to the rally.

Newton, who moved to the area three years ago from Washington, D.C., said the cross burning scared her and made her think about returning home. She said she was grateful to the Southern Anti-Racism Network for renting the bus, because low-income people also think it is important to stand against racism.

"I want my children to understand what's going on," she said.

As the rally drew to a close, Mayor Bill Bell called the community support "tremendous."

He said his job now is to channel that energy into getting residents involved in tackling other community issues such as gangs, substandard housing and poverty. Tables lined the walls of the armory, holding sign-up sheets for volunteers willing to help find solutions in areas such as gangs, homelessness, suspensions, employment and housing.

"I think it's an outpouring that reflects Durham's attitude," Bell said. "My hope is that we can find one or more issues we can galvanize around. Our challenge is to keep this going."


First of all, let me be the first to say.......whoever did this was really crazy......

And if it was the KKK, they were really crazy to do it in Durham ...with all the "Black Gangs" out here.
 
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#2 ·
Ejohnson, consider Durham lucky for not having any of its existing towers burned instead :lol: (Hope my joke did not offend you in any way.) This incident is not to be taken seriously, even if KKK was behind it. Today's problems have shifted to a different direction. I know this will not come out right, but I will say it with good intentions: a developer who clear-cuts hundreds of acres of wooded land is even more dangerous than three cross burnings. Political messages are starting to mean less today, as the barriers have been lifted - in most cases - and the co-existence between different races and ethnic groups is no longer as problematic as in the past. KKK members know that, and they have shifted their interest in less racial issues, with a more anti-Federal government attitudes, if I can believe what they claim in their interviews with the press/TV.

I am not suggesting that urbanization will change this, but as many rural areas become more urban (or suburban, I should say), people's attitudes will also change. If I live in a city I would be more concerned about gang violence; KKK is mostly a rural/small city phenomenon, but I may be wrong on this.

Anyway, good to see you (ejohnson) found some time to post :eek:kay:
 
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